Continuing on from the defunct US Presidential Election 2016 thread, this thread will henceforth serve as the main forum for discussion and debate on all topics relevant to United States politics, policy, economics, philosophy and other themes underneath the umbrella of the US political sphere.

Considering the often polarizing nature of the topics up for discussion, on top of the Forum Rules and the D&D section guidelines, a standard of mutual decency applies: Do leave the rhetoric, ad hominem, and one-liners at the door.

El Diablo

so I have a confession to make.
I hope Donald Trump pulls a giant Punk'd on America and does a good job as President by just being a non-conservative, non-liberal Centrist who builds hospitals and schools and roads and bridges and high speed trains instead of walls..

Mythical_Lotus

Mrs. Clinton had the majority of voters on lower incomes, with 52% of those on incomes below $50,000 (£40,000) a year supporting her compared with 41% voting for her opponent. Among those earning more than $50,000, it was 49% to Mr. Trump compared with 47% to Mrs. Clinton.

Looking specifically at white women, they favoured Mr. Trump, with 53% supporting him compared with 43% for Mrs. Clinton.

Sir Michael

Does anyone actually think there could be Republicans in both houses that refuse to back Trump?

Maybe not enough to make a difference, but it is possible.

If anything that's transpired in the past year is worth acknowledging, it's that there were quite a few Republicans that didn't approve of Trump, especially when he was sh*t-talking certain members of the party. Also, being a rookie to politics, I'd be surprised to see the older heads take him seriously.

Melchior

I don't know who dropped the ball harder: left-liberals sneering at Bernie Sanders being 'unelectable' or leftist men relentlessly attacking Clinton over and above what is called for with an establishment democrat standing opposite a fascist.

It will be interesting to see how the President-elect's backers will react when it turns out all his bombastic pie in the sky promises of borders walls, banning of Muslims, deportations without due process of millions of "illegal" immigrants, backing out of multilateral treaties and incarcerating of political opponents, will be just that; campaign promises, which he like all the Presidents that preceded him will for the most part never be able to make good on. In its stead getting the Donald Trump we've seen during his victory speech, muzzled, more composed and dare I say vaguely diplomatic.

X S

I'm actually really surprised the neocons (Never Trumper's) are getting behind him. I thought they would defect and go back to Democratic party where they came from. Who knows, this is just the honeymoon.

Eutyphro

or leftist men relentlessly attacking Clinton over and above what is called for with an establishment democrat standing opposite a fascist.

Firstly, any criticism that is true is also called for. Secondly, I don't really think leftist men have attacked Clinton that much at all really. Maybe some at reddit, but in general everyone leftist seemed to be completely uncritical and partisan in their support of her, eventhough she was pretty much a right wing democrat running on a platform copied and stolen from Bernie Sanders, which was most likely completely a lie and would've never become policy.

Or maybe you are trying to bring up the 'Bernie bro' thing, which was a disgusting attempt by the Clinton campaign to pretend she shouldn't be criticized because of her gender, and supposedly women can't take criticism in Hillary Clinton's world view. That was utter garbage, and if you believe in that, it's disappointing.

Melchior

or leftist men relentlessly attacking Clinton over and above what is called for with an establishment democrat standing opposite a fascist.

Firstly, any criticism that is true is also called for. Secondly, I don't really think leftist men have attacked Clinton that much at all really. Maybe some at reddit, but in general everyone leftist seemed to be completely uncritical and partisan in their support of her, eventhough she was pretty much a right wing democrat running on a platform copied and stolen from Bernie Sanders, which was most likely completely a lie and would've never become policy.

Or maybe you are trying to bring up the 'Bernie bro' thing, which was a disgusting attempt by the Clinton campaign to pretend she shouldn't be criticized because of her gender, and supposedly women can't take criticism in Hillary Clinton's world view. That was utter garbage, and if you believe in that, it's disappointing.

I don't know about 'Bernie bros' but it's pretty clear that the hostility towards Clinton was disproportionate. People didn't react this way to Kerry or Obama, and I'm not sure to what extent I buy the narrative that this was just the tipping point. Obama was viewed as a neoliberal stooge but Clinton was viewed as inherently evil and conniving.

It will be interesting how the President-elect's backers will react when it turns out all his bombastic pie in the sky promises (...) will for the most part never be able to make good on.

You don't say. I assume you must be endowed with the ability to foresee the future. Did you predict Trump's election too?

I can tell you, if he doesn't keep his word, those who supported him will feel betrayed and despise him profusely.

Based on quite a few factors, but mainly the feasibility of the promises and the track-record of the measurably more qualified and experienced incumbent and his predecessors. It's quite a few big ticket issues that end up either in a state of compromise, deadlock or even get broken entirely -and mind you in the following example these policy-ideas unlike the one's in the President-elect's platform hadn't been branded as infeasible, or even patently impossible to execute by authorities on the relevant subject matters the world over- Think for example the closure of GITMO, providing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, increase of the minimum wage to $9.50/h, passing the Freedom of Choice act- just to name a few. Issues, that during his election had high hopes of coming to pass, yet unfortunately didn't. And those were as said based on a platform, that unlike the President-elect's actually, for the most part, made good economic and practical sense. The construction of a giant wall, to name a hot-button issue, that defies economic and practical sanity on the other hand, not so much. Brexit and the phantom £350m /week spring to mind as well. So, no I can't predict the future, but I will take the actual implementation of Trump's platform with a huge grain of salt.

GTA_stu

He doesn't actually have to literally build a wall across the entire border. He just needs to be tough on illegal immigration, and part of that might include a border fence in many areas. As long as he is seen as being tough on illegal immigration, via mass deportations, more border patrol agents, ending amnesties, and actually reducing the numbers coming in by a considerable amount, I think his supporters will see it as a success and as him sticking to his word, even if there isn't much of a wall built. I think it's still likely there will be quite a bit of border wall/fence built though.

DERGaming

He doesn't actually have to literally build a wall across the entire border. He just needs to be tough on illegal immigration, and part of that might include a border fence in many areas. As long as he is seen as being tough on illegal immigration, via mass deportations, more border patrol agents, ending amnesties, and actually reducing the numbers coming in by a considerable amount, I think his supporters will see it as a success and as him sticking to his word, even if there isn't much of a wall built. I think it's still likely there will be quite a bit of border wall/fence built though.

He admited that he will literary build a wall which will wipe out half of your population

He doesn't actually have to literally build a wall across the entire border. He just needs to be tough on illegal immigration, and part of that might include a border fence in many areas. As long as he is seen as being tough on illegal immigration, via mass deportations, more border patrol agents, ending amnesties, and actually reducing the numbers coming in by a considerable amount, I think his supporters will see it as a success and as him sticking to his word, even if there isn't much of a wall built. I think it's still likely there will be quite a bit of border wall/fence built though.

I don't doubt he will be tougher on immigration, with both the House and Senate firmly under Republican control and at least one more conservative Supreme Justice in the offing, there won't be a lot in the way of obstacles there. The problem, however, is that many of the policies you mentioned have to varying degrees already been implemented, the US has seen unprecedented levels of deportations under President Obama, parts of the US-Mexico border already have fencing, yet numbers of undocumented immigrants have stabilized. I doubt a metaphorical wall in the shape of some more fencing, more border patrol agents and ending amnesties is going to be satisfactory to those expecting the Great Wall of America to be constructed under the President-elect's supervision. The zeal and electoral power of this group, the disillusioned right-wing seeking the upset of the status quo in the figure of an in their eyes no-nonsense anti-politician, has been underestimated by a candidate once before, and it helped her rival to the presidency. It can just as quick give him the boot again if he won't be able to make good on promises like his wall, and throughout the course of 4 years in office slowly becomes just another politician. A very real 'danger' for him because of the extreme nature of the platform he ran on.

Nice Person

Before I start off. I refuse to call Donald Trump President-elect, so I will keep calling him The Don (or whatever I feel like calling him, that doesn't have 'President' in it).

Second off, I hope strongly Trump is a good intent guy for the most part because we've come too far to see a ultra conservative take the new seat, and the fact the FDA will go deregulated is tragic. I doubt he'll be re-elected anyway but by 2020 the Democrats have got to find a new identity.

X S

It's clear many people are in shock and disbelief. Bear in mind, we've had many bitter elections, and the first was the election of 1800 between Jefferson and Adams. They were best friends turned bitter rivals, and after not talking to each other for many years, they reestablished contact with one another in old age and rekindled their friendship until death. They both died on July 4, 1826, Independence Day.

Triple Vacuum Seal

...wonder how long it will take for Trump's loyal subjects to discover that he is the establishment they were so hell-bent on supplanting. His core promises are completely infeasible and he's less intelligent than Bush II. His incompetency won't take long to reveal itself.

At best, he's lying about his entire platform, but still remains incompetent.